Octorara Area SD board accepts resignations, approves hires and supplemental contracts
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Summary
The Octorara Area School District board accepted multiple resignations, including the Octorara Intermediate School principal, and approved new hires, translator appointments and supplemental coaching/leader transfers; some items and an administrative organizational chart were deferred for further discussion.
The Octorara Area School District Board of School Directors on [meeting date not specified] accepted several resignations and approved multiple hires and supplemental contracts, including translator appointments and coaching transfers.
The board accepted with regret the resignation for the purpose of retirement of Elena Tejal as principal of Octorara Intermediate School, effective June 30, 2026, and accepted the retirement of Ken Lewis, a health and physical education teacher at Octorara Area High School, effective at the end of the 2025 school year (Lewis was hired in August 1996). The chair thanked Tejal for "wear[ing] many hats" and for her service to the district.
The board also approved additional personnel changes announced in the informational items: resignations from Valerie Brewer (second grade teacher at the Primary Learning Center, effective Dec. 19, 2025), Monica Barlow (payroll specialist, effective Dec. 23, 2025) and April Detwiler (food service worker, effective Jan. 9, 2026). A separate personnel item listed the termination of employment for an employee identified as "employee a." Specifics about that termination were not discussed in detail during the public portion of the meeting.
Hiring approvals included Diane Pfeiffer as a mathematics teacher at Octorara Middle School, effective Jan. 9, 2026, pending completion of required employee documents; Pfeiffer's salary was listed as $60,479 prorated (step 16, bachelor scale). The board approved Casey Craven as a long-term substitute second-grade teacher through the 2025–26 school year, with a prorated salary of $60,229 (step 17, bachelor scale). The board also approved translators for 2025–26 at $43.77 per hour: Maria Sosa, Luz Sosa, Anna Torres, Maria Estrada and Lisely Semenak.
On supplemental pay and coaching: the board approved a $620 supplemental bonus for Amanda Kiefer for mentoring in 2024–25 and approved transfer of the teacher-leader supplemental position at Octorara Area High School from Kiefer to Scott Conahan (4 points at $620 each). Deandre Clark will transfer from head junior high girls basketball coach (4 points at $620) to assistant varsity girls basketball coach (9 points at $620), for a prorated total of $5,580, effective Dec. 26. Supplemental contracts for the 2025–26 school year were announced, including Amanda King as junior high head track and field coach.
Board members praised Tejal for her service: the chair said, "I just wanna personally thank you for your willingness to wear many hats as your letter of resignation suggests," and a board member added that the notice gives the district time "to find the next leader" and praised her advance notice.
The board previewed several items for next week's agenda — including an administrative organizational chart and a proposed termination agreement with Viking Pure Solutions for $4,000 — which were either scheduled for action or pulled for further discussion.
The meeting concluded with an announcement that an executive session on legal and personnel matters would follow the public meeting. No formal vote totals for personnel items were recorded in the publicly read summary in the transcript.
Next steps: the board will circulate further information from administration on items pulled for more discussion and will continue some personnel and administrative discussions at the next meeting.
